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"Technology appeals to us most where we are most vulnerable"

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"We expect more from technology and less from each other"

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"We are tempted by machines that offer companionship"

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"I'd rather text than talk"

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"I'd rather just do things on my Blackberry"

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"[Phones] dont only change what we do, they change who we are"

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"We're letting technology take us places we don't want to go"

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Snapchat - you can send each other pictures or post them for all your friends to see on your profile, but personal photos disappear in 10 seconds and 'stories' on your profile disappear in 24 hours. You can also chat on this app, but unless you actively save messages they disappear once you leave the thread. This encourages temporary conversation that only requires a short attention span. It is easy to avoid vulnerability on this app because if you do say something you feel self conscious about, it will disappear forever before the other person necessarily has a chance to read it or see it all.

On Snapchat, if you and another person send each other at least one photo every day they can establish a 'streak', and the app records how many days you've kept it going. If someone doesn't snap another person they have a 'streak' with within 24 hours, the streak is lost. Once people see that they've lost a streak they often become upset or angry with the other person because they feel their friend doesn't want to 'connect' with them. On top of this, you can see exactly when someone read your message or opened your snap, and when they're on the app. If a person doesn't immediately reply, people take personal offence (this doesn't just apply to Snapchat). This is a superficial and shallow way of thinking about who wants to connect and when.

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Turkle believes that because technology allows us to 'connect with the world' at a comfortable distance under our own control, we are no longer having the conversations we need to develop relationships with others and in turn, with ourselves. These days, people think it's easier to text and hide behind a screen, because real-life conversations are in real time and you can't control what you say. We can also edit, delete and retouch the image of ourselves that others see online. Therefore, we are almost completely disregarding our actual relationships with people. Real-life relationships are messy, and we use technology to 'clean them up'. However, you can't truly come to understand and know a person online.

The reason why people like social media is because they feel like no one is listening to them, and with followers, likes etc. online, they feel like people are listening to them and paying attention. In fact, Turkle says we want "the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship". Beyond seeing images of people on social media, it is often wished that technology like Siri will listen to you and become your best friend - so much so that 'sociable robots' are being developed so people can buy into the illusion that they are heard and understood. People turn to social media or their phone as soon as they're alone because being alone feels like a problem that needs to be solved. People are struggling to learn the capacity for solitude. They are lonely but fear intimacy.

"If we don't teach our children how to be alone, they will only know how to be lonely."

from a psychological perspective, conversations with others are practise for conversations with ourselves, and affect our capacity for self reflection. According to Turkle, this is the "bedrock of development" for children.

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Psychologist Sherry Turkle performed a TEDTalk in 2012 supporting her new book about being connected, but alone online. She had previously written a book in 1996 celebrating the early stages of the internet.

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Andrew Keen suggests that in some ways social media can be good because it allows personal growth and help people interact by maintains the idea that it does more harm than good to our society. He believes that social media is dividing and disordering us and perpetuates narcissism. He believes that it makes people narcissist because people become pre - occupied with broadcasting themselves.
He also believes that it takes away peoples privacy by posting pictures of their children and by broadcasting their privacy they destroy their inner world which is one of the thing s that make them human.
Andrew keen mentions that the riots are an accurate reflection of the nature of social media. It changes how people interact, eat, travel and educate and takes away the best part of ourselves and that is the mystery of our personality.
He also says that people can't develop good relationships and friendships over social media because it is not real and cannot be developed through a screen.
One of the final things he mentions is that social media enables cmpanies to change our behaviour demeanor.

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Nicholas Negroponle highlighted the potential of the web to overcome social divsions, people are able to socialise in a digital neighbourhood in which physical space is irrelevant. No matter who you are or what you associate with web provides everyone with a space to connect. He and other cyber utopians suggest that the potential of this type of Web is manifested within Web 2.0.

David Gauntlett suggests the creative benifits of Web 2.0 platforms such as instagram, vimeo, youtube ECT, they give people a opportunity to create and share with likeminded people. These platforms also provide a way of expressing ourselfs and enable us to achieve our creative potential.

Henry Jenkins suggested the idea of 'participatory culture' this is that traditional  media producers are being replaced by a new generation of creative prosumers. He stated that Web 2.0 has the capacity to democratize our society rather than being sujected to the messages of mass media we can harness professional media products messages for our own purposes. This is  called creative scaffolding. An example of creative scaffolding is shown through the channels of youtubers  Cassetboy and White Dee. According to James Owen, shows such as The Jeremy Kyle Show and  Benifits Street create what he called a 'chav hatred'. However Cassetboy, creates parodies critiquing these programmes whilst White Dee provides a social commentary on these programmes and others. These youtube channels are appropriating the sentiment of the shows, and harnessing them for themselves.

CYBER UTOPIANISM AND IDENTITIES
Some cyber utopianists draw attention to the capacity of We 2.0 to allow people to transcend the everyday in search for more exciting identities.

Sherry Turkle suggested online virtual platforms such as 'Second Life' offers users the chance to create a mediated avatar that is often in opposition to restrictive real world. Platforms such as instagram. facebook users often abandon the physical in favour of idealistic expressions of them selfs. This is a mediated identity.

Anthony Giddens suggests that the potential of Web 2.0 to create a more pluralist society that offers citzens the capacity to engage in  what he calls 'self relfective project of self' where media no longer dictate fixed ideas of idenitity but reflect and enable a sense of self where gender, sexuality and ability are fluid.

The pluralist deas of web 2.0 have arguably fed into mainstream media for example TV shows by netflix being more inclusive, Sense8, House of Cards and Orange is the new black decipt a range of genders, sexualities, ablities and ethincities.

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The Web 2.0 could be seen as a reflection of our existing social divides.
The theorist Cass Sunstein discusses the negative effects of the web's capacity to personalise our world. Sustein suggests that this personalisation of our web pages, for example the generated Twitter feeds and YouTube suggestions become an empty 'echo chamber' in reinforcing what we want to hear. (According to Wikipedia, in media, an 'echo chamber' is a situation in which information, ideas or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by the repetition inside an 'enclosed system')

Alan Martin's writing in Wired magazine suggests that the Web 2.0 concentrates our prejudice and intolerances.
Martin and Sustein describe the internet as a land of 'islands' in allowing users to connect and find like-minded people. They connect by 'liking' and 'retweeting' the post and this marks the ideological affirmation. However, when the 'islands' collide this is what Martin sees as the most problematic in the personalisation. For example, the way we can scroll through a Facebook community and watch YouTube videos, without looking deeply into these sites, we can instantly find conflicting social media 'banter' that can escalate into extreme adversarial debates.
Martin believes that we are able to be antagonistic online because we immerse ourselves quite deeply certain communities.
Also, shows like The Jeremy Kyle Show are illustrative of the 'echo chamber' idea. Due to the fact that it is easy to find uploads of the show on YouTube, we can scroll through and dig a little deeper, to find the commentary accompanying these uploads - escalating into polemical rants and arguments. For example, in the clip titled 'Worst Chav Ever', a comment about one contestant says 'Deport him to the moon', encouraging a stream of angry users to jump and defend the unwitty reality TV star. There are literally millions of conversations seen throughout YouTube and social media - displaying social media at their worst trolling point.

Is the Web 2.0 heaven or hell?